Last Minute Getaway- (3rd of 4 reports) Day 2, 5/31/03
Attendees: Me & DH (Both 30, 2 Disney Trips in last 2 years, Last year's trip included a trip to USF).
From my previous posts, this was a surprise trip. My DH wanted to go somewhere at the last minute, but didn't care where. I booked a trip on Hotwire for the PBH from Fri-Sun.
We had planned on getting up really early and hitting US as soon as it opened. After our night at Pat O'Brien's and our jaunt to McDonald's at 1am, we didn't quite make it. Plus, I had a hurricane induced headache. We got up about 8:45, took some advil and we were on our way by 9:15. The boat was not around so we walked again. When we got to US, we saw that the boat was just pulling away from CW. I guess we are just impatient, but if we waited for the boat every time, we would have wasted tons of time.
US was not too crowded. We hit Jimmy Neutron which was really cool. If you don't like simulator rides, you probably won't like this. I break out in a sweat in Body Wars, Star Tours and Back to the Future and this was no different. It was cool, though, even though my DH & I did not know anything about the cartoon/movie. Shrek was not open. I had thought it was going to be open when we were there, but maybe we just missed it or something.
We also caught Twister, Jaws, Men in Black, E.T., and T2. We walked on all of them with FOTL. The stand-by waits were not very much- 20-40 minutes, I think. We had never seen T2 before. It was a very cool show, switching from live action to the screen. Very impressed. We also watched the Animal Planet show. That was really cute and I would really recommend it for all ages. Great place to take a break and sit for a while.
Weird side note-when we were walking from Men in Black to E.T. we heard some of the songs from Lord of the Dance. We found that strange. Does anyone know if that is part of the US soundtrack?
We went back to the hotel to let DH change his shirt for our 1:30pm reservation for Emeril's Tchop Chop. Room was cleaned
, but still no welcome gift. I called the front desk a second time. This time, they didn't pick up and the operator offered to help out. She said she would call the desk in a few minutes and tell them to make sure that we got it. She also said that she would change our request from wine to milk & cookies (thank you, hurricanes). I don't know if the room switch screwed everything up, but she stated it was noted that we had switched rooms. BTW, we had turn down service every time we left the room, it seemed. That was awesome. Fresh towels, toiletries were brought in each time. Very good housekeeping!!
We walked from PBH to RPH for lunch. We arrived on time (but a little bit sweaty). We were very impressed with the look of the resort. The pool area was hopping with lots of people in the pool and hanging around. There was also a guy playing a steel drum. Theming was cool and it looked like a lot more fun than our pool.
Tchop Chop was good. We had the 3 egg rolls with dipping sauces for an appetizer. The flavor of the egg rolls was good, however, they were all pretty oily. One was just about floating. The sauces were very good. I had the soup of the day, which I believe was a crabmeat based soup. It was very good. DH had the tomato salad with nuts, goat cheese, and onions. It was very good & he loved it. For my entree, I had the fried rock shrimp salad. I really didn't like it at all. The charred onion dressing tasted just like they had dumped liquid smoke all over the salad. DH & I thought it was almost inedible (unless you like straight liquid smoke, I guess). DH had the Hawaiian Lunch which was a sampler of flavorful ribs, chicken pork, hash and mac & cheese. Every item was awesome. We were too full for dessert. Bill was $71.11 , including tip. All in all the food and the service were good, but we did not think it was as good as Emeril's in CW or Las Vegas.
We went to IOA for the rest of the afternoon. We went on Cat in the Hat, the Flying Unicorn, Dueling Dragons, Jurassic Park (really love the drop), Dudley Do-Right Ripsaw Falls (very fun) and Triceratops Encounter (my DH didnt know what to make of this). We also did Poseidons Fury. This was very neat and since we did not know much about this attraction, it was kind of exciting/surprising. The standby waits were mostly 45 min. to an hour or so. FOTL worked great except for Dudley Do Right, which does not allow you to bypass much of the line. We probably waited 35 minutes for that ride.
We headed back to the hotel about 5 or so, grabbing a frozen coke by the water at CW. We swam for a few minutes at the pool with the cabanas (just a couple of others there). We couldnt decide what to eat for dinner, Latin Quarter, Bob Marley??? I suggested Boma and we both thought that sounded good. We got a PS for 9pm. We got over there about 8:20 and had African beers (Tusker?) in the bar above Boma. We love that bar. You can just relax in the big chairs and smell the awesome food. We could see it was really crowded and when I went down to check on our PS, there were fights breaking out all over the place. Apparently everyone down there had a PS that was at least 30-50 minutes past the time. The CMs were trying to do damage control, but it looked like they were losing. I ran across the hall to see what Jiko looked like & there was no wait. I grabbed DH and we cancelled our Boma PS and went over to Jiko.
We had a great dinner. It was our first time here and the service was very good. DH had another Tusker. We had the Kalamata Olive Flatbread for an appetizer and it was really good. DH ordered the filet mignon with mac & cheese and really loved both, as did I. Not enough macaroni for me, though. I had the curried shrimp and squash cake. The shrimp were excellent. For dessert, we split the Chocolate Banana Bread Pudding. This was unbelievably good. It tasted like it was made with chocolate bread (or maybe bread mixed with chocolate sauce?) The bill was $95.08, including tip.
We then went out to see the animals behind the pool. The giraffes were on the move and they came very close to us. We also saw a lot of flamingos. There were lots of people enjoying the pool, even as late as it was. The AKL seems like a really cool place to stay, with a lot going on. We got back to the hotel around 11:30 or so and went to bed.
Next- Day 3
Attendees: Me & DH (Both 30, 2 Disney Trips in last 2 years, Last year's trip included a trip to USF).
From my previous posts, this was a surprise trip. My DH wanted to go somewhere at the last minute, but didn't care where. I booked a trip on Hotwire for the PBH from Fri-Sun.
We had planned on getting up really early and hitting US as soon as it opened. After our night at Pat O'Brien's and our jaunt to McDonald's at 1am, we didn't quite make it. Plus, I had a hurricane induced headache. We got up about 8:45, took some advil and we were on our way by 9:15. The boat was not around so we walked again. When we got to US, we saw that the boat was just pulling away from CW. I guess we are just impatient, but if we waited for the boat every time, we would have wasted tons of time.
US was not too crowded. We hit Jimmy Neutron which was really cool. If you don't like simulator rides, you probably won't like this. I break out in a sweat in Body Wars, Star Tours and Back to the Future and this was no different. It was cool, though, even though my DH & I did not know anything about the cartoon/movie. Shrek was not open. I had thought it was going to be open when we were there, but maybe we just missed it or something.
We also caught Twister, Jaws, Men in Black, E.T., and T2. We walked on all of them with FOTL. The stand-by waits were not very much- 20-40 minutes, I think. We had never seen T2 before. It was a very cool show, switching from live action to the screen. Very impressed. We also watched the Animal Planet show. That was really cute and I would really recommend it for all ages. Great place to take a break and sit for a while.
Weird side note-when we were walking from Men in Black to E.T. we heard some of the songs from Lord of the Dance. We found that strange. Does anyone know if that is part of the US soundtrack?
We went back to the hotel to let DH change his shirt for our 1:30pm reservation for Emeril's Tchop Chop. Room was cleaned
, but still no welcome gift. I called the front desk a second time. This time, they didn't pick up and the operator offered to help out. She said she would call the desk in a few minutes and tell them to make sure that we got it. She also said that she would change our request from wine to milk & cookies (thank you, hurricanes). I don't know if the room switch screwed everything up, but she stated it was noted that we had switched rooms. BTW, we had turn down service every time we left the room, it seemed. That was awesome. Fresh towels, toiletries were brought in each time. Very good housekeeping!!We walked from PBH to RPH for lunch. We arrived on time (but a little bit sweaty). We were very impressed with the look of the resort. The pool area was hopping with lots of people in the pool and hanging around. There was also a guy playing a steel drum. Theming was cool and it looked like a lot more fun than our pool.
Tchop Chop was good. We had the 3 egg rolls with dipping sauces for an appetizer. The flavor of the egg rolls was good, however, they were all pretty oily. One was just about floating. The sauces were very good. I had the soup of the day, which I believe was a crabmeat based soup. It was very good. DH had the tomato salad with nuts, goat cheese, and onions. It was very good & he loved it. For my entree, I had the fried rock shrimp salad. I really didn't like it at all. The charred onion dressing tasted just like they had dumped liquid smoke all over the salad. DH & I thought it was almost inedible (unless you like straight liquid smoke, I guess). DH had the Hawaiian Lunch which was a sampler of flavorful ribs, chicken pork, hash and mac & cheese. Every item was awesome. We were too full for dessert. Bill was $71.11 , including tip. All in all the food and the service were good, but we did not think it was as good as Emeril's in CW or Las Vegas.
We went to IOA for the rest of the afternoon. We went on Cat in the Hat, the Flying Unicorn, Dueling Dragons, Jurassic Park (really love the drop), Dudley Do-Right Ripsaw Falls (very fun) and Triceratops Encounter (my DH didnt know what to make of this). We also did Poseidons Fury. This was very neat and since we did not know much about this attraction, it was kind of exciting/surprising. The standby waits were mostly 45 min. to an hour or so. FOTL worked great except for Dudley Do Right, which does not allow you to bypass much of the line. We probably waited 35 minutes for that ride.
We headed back to the hotel about 5 or so, grabbing a frozen coke by the water at CW. We swam for a few minutes at the pool with the cabanas (just a couple of others there). We couldnt decide what to eat for dinner, Latin Quarter, Bob Marley??? I suggested Boma and we both thought that sounded good. We got a PS for 9pm. We got over there about 8:20 and had African beers (Tusker?) in the bar above Boma. We love that bar. You can just relax in the big chairs and smell the awesome food. We could see it was really crowded and when I went down to check on our PS, there were fights breaking out all over the place. Apparently everyone down there had a PS that was at least 30-50 minutes past the time. The CMs were trying to do damage control, but it looked like they were losing. I ran across the hall to see what Jiko looked like & there was no wait. I grabbed DH and we cancelled our Boma PS and went over to Jiko.
We had a great dinner. It was our first time here and the service was very good. DH had another Tusker. We had the Kalamata Olive Flatbread for an appetizer and it was really good. DH ordered the filet mignon with mac & cheese and really loved both, as did I. Not enough macaroni for me, though. I had the curried shrimp and squash cake. The shrimp were excellent. For dessert, we split the Chocolate Banana Bread Pudding. This was unbelievably good. It tasted like it was made with chocolate bread (or maybe bread mixed with chocolate sauce?) The bill was $95.08, including tip.
We then went out to see the animals behind the pool. The giraffes were on the move and they came very close to us. We also saw a lot of flamingos. There were lots of people enjoying the pool, even as late as it was. The AKL seems like a really cool place to stay, with a lot going on. We got back to the hotel around 11:30 or so and went to bed.
Next- Day 3
You can have one for me!
